Here's another image taken on the night of 17th Feb at Kulnura.
This is a single image, as the stacked version just didn't come out as well.. probably due to the distorted stars in the corner.
I corrected the optical distortion where possible in this image, using some geometric black magic in Iris. Obviously some areas were cropped as a result.
This image was processed in MaxDSLR followed by Iris followed by Photoshop. The colour balance and sharpness is better than the one I posted the other day of this same area.
It's a single 4-min exposure, Canon 350D + 50mm f/1.8 @ f/2.2, ISO800. Tracked on the EQ6.
Mike the over exposure will accentuate any lens distortion such as very minor astigmatism. You were quite justified to go for broke with dark skies but any optic will let you down.
As per the other thread stopping to f3.5 which will greatly improve stars towards the edges. Actually in my tests, provided you got focus spot on f3.2 was actually very good as well.
To me the image seems a little over saturated with stars, I know its hard in this area of sky but maybe shorter exposures with more of them might be better?
I like how you got the pink tinge in the keyhole though, great for an unguided shot.
